So I am sitting here tonight thinking of the year ahead. My husband is away doing night training in preparation for his next tour overseas. I have weathered deployments before with small children, one we were stationed overseas ourselves. Last tour I had our fifth baby and she ended up having surgery for pyloric stenosis. I can handle crisis when he is away. I have been an army wife for awhile now.;) However, this tour frightens me in a way I can't even put into words. It simply sucks the breath from my chest. I have six little people who depend on me and need me to be strong. My oldest is turning 10 the same week he is due to leave. He is such a stong little man but my heart breaks for him. Please don't misread my post. My husband and I have a very stong relationship and he is a wonderful father. He has a stong sense of duty to his country and he loves what he does. I fully support him and would never want to take that from him. Honestly, I need him to come home. I need to know he will come home. That is all.

Okay we have a Honda Odyssey and 6 children.....1 in an infant seat, 2 in big carseats and 2 in booster seats. When my husband put in the "babies' carseats" he put all three across the middle and the boosters in the back. It wasn't pretty but it worked. We did end up switching one to the back and brought a booster to the center "smaller" seat. It works well for us. I am sure in the future as little legs grow we will need more space. FWIW, our kids are ages 9 to newborn.

No No offense taken :001_smile: I was just curious really if others had similar experiences. Yes, I am from (originally) a very rural area where I couldn't imagine young teens not driving. However, as a military family moving from city to country to city :001_smile:I couldn't imagine letting my young teen drive!! FWIW my nine year old does not sit in the front seat....but when we go home my dh family and my own don't understand why he can't drive the pick-up on the farm:eek:

I find it interesting that where I grew up I had a permit to drive at 14. My now 19yr. old brother also had a permit at 14 to drive. I am only mentioning this because I couldn't imagine not letting my child sit in the front seat until he was 15. My husband and my boys are very solid. My 9yr. old is 4'11 and 100lbs. They aren't even chubby, just solid and very muscular. My husband at 14 was 6'1 and 210lbs. I am just thinking comparatively to some of the very tiny high-school girls in our neighborhood. A couple girls can barely see over the steering wheel!! I am just thinking out loud really but am curious to see what other state laws are concerning learner's permits if the child isn't suppose to be in the front seat until 15.

I am due with #6 around Thanksgiving.

Thanks Lorna your post was very helpful.:)

Okay mabe my title was a little confusing...I have 5 children and the oldest being 8 the youngest almost 6 mos. Dh is either TDY or deployed and I am struggling to accomplish everything that needs to be done in one day. I feel like the most important thing with my children at this point should be the basics. We have read a lot of great books I have on my shelves for history. I have generally coordinated them with either the area we are currently stationed or relating to a particular holiday or interest. Okay so now I want something more orderly. Has anyone read the series from Yesterday's Classics through? It is actually called The Story of the World series by M.B. Synge ? I am asking because I have a couple I picked up at a homeschool store. Any suggestions would be great! Thanks.

YES!! Ours was in spanish too!! My husband is TDY in Alabama and I had to call him to see what was going on. Turns out that our TV was set to SAP and all I had to do was hit the menu button and switch it back to English. I have no idea how it was switched to SAP...hmmm okay mabe I do...he has strawberry blonde hair, big blue eyes, and he is 2. Good luck with getting it switched back. BTW I was confused because are commercials were in English also.

We are a military family (Army) as well. We have 5 children ages 8.5 to 5 mos. and are currently stationed in Maryland. We will move to Ft. Campbell this summer though. Dh was also stationed in Germany for 4 years and our big kids really miss it. We did travel Austia and Vienna was one of my favorite cities. Oh, it would be wonderful to live there!!